This invention relates to a management information system (MIS) for use in conjunction with an automatic call distribution system (ACD).
Automatic call distributors (ACD) marketed in the past few years have included management information systems which are typically minicomputer-based adjuncts to the ACD. These MISs operate to collect various statistics about the call traffic through the ACD switch.
In management information systems, the emphasis placed on the type of information gathering is a function of the environment which the ACD faces and the objectives of the ACD managers. Typically, historical information is gathered to provide data useful in evaluating performance or service quality over some period of time. Various operations may be interested in these reports over half hour intervals, over an entire shift, for a whole day, a week or even a month. To allow for such information, display data bases are established to store the pertinent data from which the reports may be generated. Thus, time periods, or windows, are constructed and certain statistics are monitored during these periods for later presentation to a manager. Some of these statistics relate to hold times of each call and to the average speed of answer of the incoming calls.
ACD management problems are enhanced in small ACDs (with fewer than 50 stations) since the agent of the small ACD must typically handle a variety of non-ACD job responsibilities. These agents may be required to handle walk-in business or to make outgoing calls for the purpose of bill collecting or advertising in addition to handling incoming calls. During these activities the agent's console would not be available to receive ACD calls. Thus since the ACD traffic is not static, over time the manager must know at any instant exactly how the system is configured. This requirement, then, suggests an information arrangement which allows for rapid, "real time" rearrangement of ACD agents.
Even in the largest installations it is expensive to provide comprehensive information to satisfy all managers. The primary issue which faces the MIS designer, then, is how to allocate available resources to the various types of reports and how to present the information to the manager in a meaningful manner. Thus, it is necessary to known exactly what information is required for proper management control and to know when to update the information so as not to confuse the system manager with constantly changing meaningless information.
When using a video display screen to present the necessary data to the manager, it is important that the display not change every time a piece of information changes, while at the same time provision must be made to immediately update certain highly relevant information. These opposed criteria then impose severe restrictions on the design of any management information system and make the selection and presentation of information vitally important.